There are so many places to hike in the Black Hills, and there were a number I wanted to try, but wasn’t sure my 8 year old would be up to hiking that far. Plus, I felt like I was dragging energy wise all week, but it was important to me to get in one more hike before we left South Dakota.

I originally planned to hike the Osprey trail the day we camped at Pactola Lake since this trail is right next to the campsite, but rain delayed this plan until later. This trail has a couple loops and another short trail we accidentally wandered down to make it about a 2.5 mile hike.

It was a warm day so it was nice to have shade, but there are plenty of open areas with full sun so you’ll want to make sure you have a hat and sunscreen. The trail was sometimes hard to find so I was grateful to be using the AllTrails app again to help us find one of the trail heads. As a side note, this app allows you to record your hike and gives you stats such as what your average time per mile was. Wish I discovered this earlier.

We saw a couple people on this trail, but for the most part we had it to ourselves which wins huge points for us. Also, having shade earns it points and it had a pretty view of the lake.